Christopher Niquet has known the stylist Camille Bidault-Waddington since his days as a fashion-interning student at La Sorbonne in Paris.
“There was an aura surrounding her,” he says. “I got to assist her on jobs, and I vividly remember an advertising [shoot] where she talked to me about new music, and art, and cool people in between takes. She was so generous with her inspirations and treated her team of helpers as youngsters to nurture.” Now that he edits and publishes a magazine of his own—each issue of Study does a deep dive—or study—of a single subject*—*he’s spotlighting Bidault-Waddington. His new issue showcases about 65 images from the thousands she’s styled over two-plus decades for magazines from Dazed and The Face to Self-Service and Purple.
“For each issue of Study,” Niquet explains, “I’m drawn to people with a specific world, people who can, in whatever their medium is, bring a coherent and specific hyper-focused vision to life. And as I started diving into my own magazine archive, Camille had done that.” He goes on: “What surprised me was that her work was much more conceptual than I remembered. Because she is such a cool girl, and a great dresser we tend to look at her work as just that: someone who can transform a model into a version of herself and give her that innate Camille cool factor. But really, since the earliest photo in the portfolio (a Yohji Yamamoto campaign featuring Stella Tennant and photographed by David Sims) to her most recent work, her images are about messing with what getting dressed means and what we say with the clothes we wear. It’s about music, style, art, books, the news, friendships. She really consumes the world in its entirety and finds a way to translate that with clothing.” There’s 36 photographers in the issue, and Niquet makes a point of mentioning that “all of them gave me the right to reproduce their work the minute they received my email. It’s really a testament to Camille’s spirit and the quality of what she does.”
As Paris was powering down for the holidays, Bidault-Waddington spoke with me over Zoom about her career and the way fashion has changed since she started styling in the late ’90s.
Nicole Phelps: Looking at Christopher’s edit, what did you learn about yourself and your work?
Camille Bidault-Waddington: The clothes are not worn properly. I have this urge of moving them around the body, not putting them straight. At the beginning, I put them inside out, back-to-front, or that kind of thing. Obviously now I’m not doing it anymore, because if you do, you’re really told off. But everything is misplaced. There’s something a little bit alive, a bit uncontrolled.
What would you say you learned about fashion, looking at Christopher’s edit?
Well, at the beginning it was okay to disrespect the clothes. And some of the designers actually really liked it. At the end of the ’90s, beginning of 2000s, Paris, it was a smaller scene, so everyone knew each other much more intimately than now. It was not the same industry, so it was like a lighter vibe in between people. Now I think because it’s really like a business, the styling is more respectful of a product. Before you were not thinking of a product, you were thinking of whatever you wanted. It was not about selling anything.
So, the brands have become more controlling?
Even when you ask for 10 different looks from a designer, they always send you the same because they’re pushing those five looks. Before you could shoot anything, even a piece of the commercial line. I’ve never been too into the strong looks of the shows. At the beginning I always liked the thing that no one was shooting, the things that were less respected.
Over the years I’ve observed that there’s a real competition to shoot those “key” looks first…
I hate that.
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Did you intentionally develop your taste to sort of like the unexpected thing, or was that a really natural sort of a natural instinct for you?
It was a reaction. Everyone wants to have those five strong looks. I thought it was forced, and I don’t really like people to force me to do one thing. So obviously, I just went, you know, to the other bits. And that’s why I had to be creative because the other bits were probably less powerful on an image.
In a way you chose a more difficult path for yourself.
I didn’t notice because for me, it was natural. Basically, it was like, each season I was going to a new flea market. And there was lots of stuff there. And then do something with the stuff, so there’s not even a trend. You feel things… That’s why I like subcultures because you see what’s coming really early. But yeah, it was probably a reaction to what was pushed on me. I’m much better now.
What do you mean, much better?
Now you understand, you know, that the magazines need to have that look—the full look policy. I understand also, sometimes you can just say no and no one is going to chop your head. Sometimes you change a pair of shoes and you see your assistant just like changing color. It’s okay. But you feel it, no? There is that fear now, you know, pissing off the houses.
But you’re happy to do that from time to time. Like, otherwise why be a stylist?
To be honest, I don’t think I would be a stylist if I was 20 years younger.
Tell me more.
It was very experimental 20 years ago. You were talking with words. You were meeting and you were explaining with sentences and ideas of art and stuff. Now, with all the mood boards, it’s like everything is nearly decided before the shoot. You talk with images, you don’t even talk with words. If you write an idea, then you’re not sure it’s actually understood—if it’s just said with words. I find that very frustrating, because then you have to do something with already existing things. At that time we were discussing.
So what do you blame for that situation? Is it just that we move so fast and images convey things easier?
I don’t know what’s moving, because fashion doesn’t move. We’re still in a big duty free world. I don’t think images are moving so much either. They’re moving faster on your phone, but what they are is not really moving. If you open a magazine of four years ago and one now, there’s not a huge difference. We consume images more, I think, but it’s not that they are moving and I don’t think fashion is moving too much. Since you have to understand everything with an image, I think everything becomes 2D, you know, like you feel there’s a lack of dimension. But I think dimension will come back. I have the feeling that young people are trying to work around that a little bit—like with volumes and body shapes.
And more people are making magazines like the kind that Christopher is making: niche and very particular, and driven by their own interests.
Study, what I really loved is that it’s not a fashion magazine. In a fashion magazine, if you look at old stuff, everything gets tacky so fast. Even your own styling, when you look at it, sometimes it doesn’t travel through the ages really well.
But you and Christopher were quite aligned on these images.
I love Christopher, I totally trust him. He had the brilliant idea to ask Wilson Oryema and Natasha Stagg to write some things for the issue. And then when we shot that new story with Angelo Pennetta, it was nice that it was with Kiki [Willems]. I could be shooting always with the same girl… There’s some kind of creative energy, there is a trust, also. Sometimes I remember models being really scared of what I was putting on them. And I understand because sometimes I was even scared myself of what I was doing. I didn’t know if it was ugly or weird or beautiful, but it was doing something. And you can see on the face of the model; you know, there’s like a real alchemy between.
You said you wouldn’t be a stylist if you were 20 years younger. What advice do you have for younger people who want to be stylists?
My advice would be to go and search under the surface, and try to research the history of fashion, so you can digest it and make your own thing. To try to go and search for their own pleasures, you know, but in hidden places.
Last question: When you think about fashion in three years or five years, what do you think’s coming?
I think last season, I had a little feeling that there was a tendency to go to something a bit more creative in certain houses. Even like the Phoebe [Philo] stuff, I liked that she went too far somewhere. I think it’s nice, a little kind of daring thing. And I have the feeling like people are a bit like that. I have the feeling it starts. I hope it’s the case.
